


The Ethical Reflections of Dying Men

by SwissCheesits



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:34:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27900844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwissCheesits/pseuds/SwissCheesits
Summary: Yun, an aspiring writer, is about to discover what it means to truly be alive by living in the story and through the characters that he created in his mind ever since he was young.





	The Ethical Reflections of Dying Men

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yun is in for a surprise.

“ _Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. Drip. Drip. Drop. Drip. Plip. Plop. Plip- No. This isn’t how my day should start. I always focus on the wrong things when I should be focusing on something else. But, dripping water can be very annoying. It’s so loud and audibly tangible against the silence. Like an eyelash trapped in a person’s eye… I should use that as a line in my story. Wait, does that even make any sense?_ ”

Yun shook his head and placed his hands on his temples, rubbing gently. He stared at the mostly blank screen of his word doc and felt a piece of himself crumple at how utterly blank it was. Or was he being too harsh on himself? Is he harsh enough? He supposes it doesn’t quite matter in the end, considering how the truth stayed the same: he accomplished absolutely nothing all day.

Yun stood up from the couch he was sitting on and headed towards the kitchen, intent on shutting off the dripping sound coming from the faucet. It’s a good thing that he didn’t have to pay the water bill. In the end,the real reason why he got up to shut off the water wasn’t just because the sound was annoying, though it was a big reason. He wanted to get away from his current project he was working on: a fantasy novel.

_Drip. Drop. Dr- Squeak_. There was silence now. Nothing else to distract Yun from his story… except for the silence- No. Yun won’t go down that path. He will start writing his story. “ _Not that there’s much of a story to begin with,_ ” Yun thought bitterly. “ _There’s no need to be so angsty. I just need to get my brain juices flowing. Maybe I should just type out the first things that come to my head and get inspired by whatever I end up writing! I want this scene to be cool. It needs to be tragic, complicated, suspenseful, anything! Something that will get and keep the reader’s attention. Something-_ ” Yun suddenly perked up as a new idea for a scene flashed through his head. He eagerly ran back to the table he was sitting at and jumped on the couch, sitting criss cross applesauce. Typing out the scene he just thought of, Yun grinned as his thoughts were translated into living words.

_The stillness of the air when a battle has ended foreshadows the true tragedy of it all. After the sounds of screams and clashing of bodies and weaponry end, emptiness is left to fill in gaps of sound that can no longer be occupied by the dead that currently rest in silence. Silence, however, doesn’t equate to nothingness. There, in the midst of ruin, stood a man standing as tall and as proud as he could, despite his tattered and injured appearance. Even in the chaos and despair, he stands as a symbol that attempts to represent hope and strength in the face of the one man who caused all of this. This man’s name was Percy. I suppose you can call him the hero, just as you can call his enemy the villain, for now. And that villainous man stood but a scant 10 ft away from the hero of this story. “ Is this what you call true strength, hero,” the villain crooned mockingly. Percy narrows his dark brown eyes, but says nothing. Chuckling, the villain walks slowly towards the hero, uncaring of the dead that he carelessly stomps upon on his way towards his adversary. “Your friends are in pieces, your very life uprooted by my hand, and yet you still stand there defiantly. ”_

_The villain and Percy are now standing face to face. He leans forward and says, “I’d almost like to say that pathetic isn’t a good look for you, buut,” The villain reached out and gently brushed some dirt off of the taller man’s shoulder. “ That would be a lie.” The villain's toothy grin promptly drops. “ I wonder if it’s bravery or stupidity that made you believe that you ever stood a chance against me.” Percy simply smiles wanly. “ I’m standing right now. It appears that my chance hasn’t quite left me yet.” Suddenly, using the hand that touched the apparent hero’s shoulder, the villain viciously grabs Percy by the neck and promptly pushes him to the ground, trapping the taller, yet slighter man under his weight. Percy, caught surprised by this attack, grunts and begins to struggle in earnest, trying to get free of the villain’s grasp. However, the villain easily catches the other man’s hands and pins him down. Secretly, the villain couldn’t help but marvel at their physical differences: height, shape, race, etc. The villain’s pale hand easily contrasted against Percy’s dark brown skin. WITH A CRFAZY GRIN-_

Oops, got a little excited there.

_With a maniacal grin, the villain leans towards the hero, their noses now touching; cold, dead green eyes meeting warm brown. Percy cringed at their proximity, having been forced to look directly into a face that he grew to hate. It was like staring directly into the face of a corpse._

_“ It appears that you are standing no longer,” The villain says, tauntingly. Chuckling, he settles himself comfortably on top of the other man. “ Do I get a prize for defeating you so easily, or is the only reward I get for crushing you is your cute face twisting with misery?” Percy stared back, deadpan. “ Gross. Sometimes I forget how creepy you are. Do you usually sexually harass your enemies or am I just lucky?” “ No, you just happen to be my most attractive enemy.” Percy grit his teeth angrily, unable to hide his frustration away from the other. “... It doesn’t have to be this way. There was a time when you did all you could to do the right thing. You can’t possibly be genuinely happy with all that you’ve done, with all the pain that you’ve caused.” Silence. Then, the villain slowly let go of the hero’s wrists and sat back, staring contemplatively at the other man. “ … There was also a time when I believed that there was a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and that as long as you’re a good person, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality, there would be no reason why people will hate you.” Frowning, the villain leaned towards the hero once again. “ There isn’t much of a difference between the two of us, except for one crucial thing: when realizing the true facts of this world, I decided to do something about it, while you’re happy with simply sitting back ignorantly and letting these problems continue.” Percy opened his mouth to protest, but was interrupted by the sound of horses running towards them. Sighing, the villain got up from him and plastered a smile on his face. “ It doesn’t matter anymore what you believe in now, or what I believed in in the past. History oftentimes favors the victor's ideals anyways.”_

At this point, Yun wasn’t entirely sure what to write next. But, he did like what was happening so far. Sure, if the readers just read this snippet, they would be completely confused about what was going on, who the characters are, what timeline they were in, how old they are, what they’re motives are- Oh, that was what he was missing: context.

In truth, Yun has been trying to write a story for a long time. Writing gives him an escape from whenever he feels sad or down. Bonus, he thinks that he might actually be good at writing… maybe. Don’t get him wrong, he loves the characters he made, and the setting he places them in, and he truly believes that other people might like them too. However, actually typing the story coherently proved to be the most challenging thing Yun has ever done.

What scenes should go first? Who should get character development? How do you make the characters likeable, but realistic? How do you explain a complicated world without making it sound stupid? How do you write characters consistently? Blah, BLah, BlaAh, BLAHHH!

Throwing his hands in the air, Yun turned towards the invisible Gods he knew that existed and lived to mock him. “ Why can’t I just write what I want and have everyone love it?” The silence served as an answer to Yun’s rhetorical question.

Yun didn’t feel like writing anymore. Sighing, he stood up from the couch and moved away from the table. Maybe cooking something to eat will give him inspiration. Yun headed towards the kitchen, his laptop sitting on the table, its screen shining with light against the mostly darkened living room.

\--------------------------------------------------------------

Yun stared at the screen sadly. After a few hours passed, he still couldn’t find a way to introduce his characters naturally. It was almost dark outside, so Yun decided to turn on the lights in the living room, so he doesn’t strain his eyes. He wasted the entire day doing absolutely nothing besides tidying up the apartment. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Yun sat back on the couch and opened the document that kept the rough draft of his story. He idly read the additional paragraphs that he came up with.

_Percy sat in the cold, dark dungeon, frantically trying to come up with a plan that could miraculously save the day. He got up and paced the small room, looking for an escape. Sadly, the room didn’t offer much: a window that was placed approximately 20 ft on the wall, a door that was heavily bared and dense… that was it actually. The only light that was given to Percy was from a window that he couldn’t possibly reach._

_Angrily, he marched to the door and started to bang on it. “ Let me out already! Are you planning on keeping me here forever!?” Silence. Grunting in frustration at his helplessness, Percy continued to shout. “ I know you’re standing right there! You can’t keep this up.” More silence. The hero clenched his fists tightly. “ You’re a complete hypocrite, you know. You talk about how you’re doing something to end the world’s problems and how this justifies all the bad things you have done. We both know that it’s all lies! You know that what you’re doing is just going to cause more problems! You could care less about “saving the world” or whatever crap you either believe or some shit. All you care about is control. You can’t fool me! You did once, but I won’t allow you to do it again…” Percy trailed off; memories, both happy and sad, flooded him in an instant. Suddenly, he felt all his anger drain out, and Percy was left with empty sadness. Weakly running a hand through his curly hair, Percy slowly slid to the ground. “... You were right about one thing. There aren't a lot of differences between us. I’m not going to deny that. However-” Percy looked up from the dusty ground and stared at the door, his brown eyes bright with determination that could be felt by the man listening on the other side._

_“ I never lost sight of what I really wanted to accomplish.”_

“ I’m home!” a voice shouted from the entrance of the apartment. Yun quickly shut his laptop and ran towards the door, his thoughts running wildly around his head. “ _No, no, no, no, no. How could I forget? He always gets out of work at this time. We don’t have a key to the glass door to this apartment yet, but I always lock it anyway. I’m supposed to let him in now. I’m so stupid, idiot dumb, ahh-_ ”

Yun stood in front of the door and hastily opened it for the taller man waiting across from him. Yun smiled widely and pulled at the sleeves of his oversized sweater. The apartment was cold, since both men decided to lower the heat in order to save on money. This normally wouldn’t be so bad, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was the dead of winter.

The taller man, Woon, smiled patiently at Yun. Snow covered the large winter coat he was wearing and his cheeks and nose were red from the cold. He was holding a brown bag filled with groceries, probably from the local market across the street.

Woon and Yun have been dating for around 2 years, give or take. They actually knew each other back in high school, but Yun didn’t really have the courage to express his interest to the much more attractive man until they were graduating from college. To this day, Yun still doesn’t know if Woon even remembers him ever existing during that time in their life. He figured that it probably wasn’t very important anyway. “ _After all_ ,” Yun thought quietly with a smile on his face, “ _It doesn’t matter anyway. He’s mine now._ ”

“ I was getting worried about you. You didn’t answer any of my texts,” Woon said as he walked into their shared apartment. He started to take off his boots and scarf, making sure not to get snow all over the place. Yun rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “ I’m sorry. But you shouldn’t be worried about me. You know that I have my phone on silent most of the time.” “I know. But I still miss you during my work day.” Yun felt his face heat up and couldn‘t stop that happy smile from spreading across his face.

Woon smiled at Yun fondly and finally hung his winter coat neatly on the coat rack near the front door. He walked towards Yun and gave him a gentle hug. It felt nice. Yun unconsciously leaned towards Woon’s warmth and closed his eyes contentedly. “ But, I suppose you’re right. The only thing you do all day is stay in the apartment anyway.” Guilt immediately flooded Yun and he suddenly felt like apologizing for something, anything really. But, before he could, Woon was already walking away towards the kitchen.

Yun stayed standing in the middle of the living room like an idiot. His feelings churning and whirling around his stomach violently. “ _I should’ve gone grocery shopping. That way, Woon wouldn’t have to do everything around here. It’s a good thing that his job and the grocery store are walking distance away from our apartment since we don’t have a car. Why does he even put up with me? I don’t have a steady job and all I do is write a story that no one cares about what am I even doing-"_ '' I’m thinking stew for dinner. Something that’s very filling and can warm us up, since it’s cold tonight.”

Yun immediately turned towards Woon and smiled happily. “ Yeah, that sounds amazing. Anything you make tastes good anyway. Do you need any help cooking?” Woon shook his head, his hands already grabbing different spices and produce from the pantry and placing them on the counter near the stove and kitchen sink. “ No, there isn’t much you can do to help me with stew. I can do it by myself. But there is something you can help me with.” Yun nodded his head eagerly. “ Anything you need, I can do!” “ Great, we’re missing lemon grass. I need you to walk over to the store and get some for the stew.”

Yun’s smile quickly dropped. “ Lemon grass… But the only store that sells lemon grass is the Asian market around ½ mile from here.” Woon turned towards Yun and smiled proudly. “ Oh, you remembered where it is. Good, I don’t have to tell you where to go.” Yoon refused to acknowledge the stinging in his chest and picked at his sweater nervously. “ I don’t know Woon. It’s getting dark outside and it’s already snowing a lot. Do you really need lemon grass to make the stew?” Woon continued to set up his ingredients. “ The store is only a 10 minute walk from here. You should be able to get back before it gets too dark. And, the stew should be mostly done by then, so you’ll come home to something nice to eat. Doesn’t that sound good?” Yun squirmed some more. He didn’t realize how dirty their living room carpet was. He should probably vacuum tomorrow. “ Woon, I really don’t feel comfortable going out this late, and it’s winter-” “ Why are you being so difficult?”

Ice flooded Yun’s stomach. His head immediately snapped towards Woon. Woon stared at him blankly, his small smile gone. Yun stared back quietly, not knowing what to say. So Woon continued. “ Today has been a long day for me, Yun. After going to work, I’m willing to make us both something to eat since you can’t cook-” “ _It’s not like I haven’t tried. You don’t like my cooking-_ ” “ You didn’t even go shopping earlier today, that’s something I had to do as well-” “ _I didn’t know that you were making stew and we still have enough food in the fridge. I’m fine with eating something else-_ ” Woon continued to stare at Yun expectantly. “ I do all these things, and you’re still reluctant to do just one thing for me.”

Yun’s chest felt so tight that he was worried that something was going to spring out of it and land on their already dirty carpet. A part of him wanted to snap back at Woon. Defend himself, give excuses as to why he shouldn’t or didn’t do the things that Woon mentioned. But he didn’t.

Because Woon was right.

Squeezing his hands together, Yun instead said, “ You’re right. I’m sorry, Woon. You’re right.” Woon didn’t say anything. He simply turned back towards the noodles and started to break them up into smaller pieces so they could fit into the small pot that they owned. Yun forced himself to walk towards his room to put on a coat and hat. He grabbed his wallet and checked to see if he had his card. He did. He checked around to see if he had any thick socks laying around. He did. He walked out of his room and tried to find his winter boots. He found them.

Finally prepared, Yun turned towards his boyfriend hesitantly. Woon had already started to boil the noodles. “ I’ll be back soon,” Yun said. He was greeted with silence. Unsure what to do next, Yun began walking towards Woon. “ Woon, I love-” “ You should get going before it gets too dark.” Yun immediately stopped and walked towards the door again. “ See you soon.” And with that, Yun left. Silence reigned over the apartment house, exempting the sounds of chopping and boiling water.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------

“ Gamsahabnida. God dol-awa!” The check out ladies were always nice to Yun. The store was relatively small and there were only a few customers that came to the asian mart. If you could guess,the customers were mostly asian people. Luckily, as well as being asian, Yun was also an asian that could speak his native language, giving him great rapport with older Koreans who only spoke Korean. With a shy nod of his head, Yun headed out. It was pitch black out, snow falling from the sky like angry dandruff.

Yun tightened his hold on his bag of lemon grass and headed back towards home. Luckily, the way home was so simple that even Yun could remember the way back. It was mostly a straight line south of his apartment house. He only had to turn left once in order to cross the street. Yun smiled when he realized that he was almost home. Woon was right, it wasn’t that bad.

It’s a bit hard to see, since it’s so dark and there’s a lot of snow, but Yun could manage. It was a little scary, being out all by himself, but Yun could manage. He had to manage. Woon was all he had. He couldn’t stand Woon being disappointed in him.

“ I do all these things, and you are reluctant to do just one thing for me.”

“ _I’m sorry, Woon. You’re right. I’m so sorry_.” Yun couldn’t fight back his sobs. He was pathetic. Crying over something so trivial and meaningless. He turned his attention towards the ground and started to lightly jog back to the apartment. He was almost home. All he had to do was cross the street. He was almost home.

“ _Why can’t I be the person I want to be? The person that Woon wants me to be? I wish I wasn’t me. I wish I was someone else. I wish I could be someone else!_ ”

Yun turned to cross the street. Tears were now running freely down his cheeks, causing his face to freeze up even more. He continued to look down as he ran across the street.

“ _I want to be someone else_.”

A truck moved quickly down a street, wanting to make its last delivery and get home, out of the abysmal weather. Its driver did not expect a young, small man to run right in front of his truck.

“ _I wish I was-_ ”

The truck driver slammed on the brakes in a ditch attempt to avoid hitting the man.

“ _I wish-_ ”  
It didn’t work.

\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Somewhere, maybe in the far future or the distant past, in a place that’s real or fake, a wonderful place or a horrible place, a man sat on his throne. The room was dark and dreary, but extremely large, for it was the throne room of a great castle. He sat alone in the dark, his body silhouetted by the light pooling through the stained glass window behind him. He was a rather tall man, just slightly above average height with straggly brown hair and dark grey armor that fit his frame slightly. He appeared to be in a meditative state, his eyes closed peacefully.

The air, which was still, seemed to snap, like a wire giving out after carrying too much weight.

The man gently opened his eyes, revealing a pair of dark green colored orbs. A smile gently spread across his face.

“ The stage has finally been set.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story, while I guess is technically an original work, draws inspiration from a lot of different media. I won't use real character names or use their true physical descriptions, since I know that will create a pretty cringy and confusing storyline. However, some characters are more similar to their real life counterparts than others, in terms of physical form and/or name, so you might find out who the characters "actually" are. If you do, I won't confirm or deny whether you're right or wrong.  
> Updates will be irregular, since I'm making this on a whim and I don't think this story will be popular anyway. But, I do like to write. And even if there are only a few people who end up reading this story, I hope that I was able to give you something to enjoy.  
> Comments are appreciated, as well as criticism. If there is a way to better my writing, plot, and/or characters, I love to hear it. 
> 
> This story deals with some heavy themes, such as violence, gore, domestic abuse, etc. It's pretty tame in the beginning, but gets worse later on. While implied, there will also be some mention of sexual assault/rape. I won't describe it in detail, since this topic is very disturbing to me and triggering for others, but it will be heavily hinted at. If you find any of these themes too disturbing, this story isn't for you.
> 
> On that note, I hope those who stay enjoy it.


End file.
